Exchange Online and SharePoint Online are available separately or as a
suite together with Office Live Meeting for conferencing, Microsoft
Exchange Hosted Services and Microsoft Office Communications Online for
instant messaging and presence.

Pricing for Exchange Online and SharePoint Online ranges from $2 to $15 per user, per month, depending on individual worker's needs. For example, a roving, "deskless" worker who needs only to access Outlook e-mail from Exchange will pay $2 per month, Capossela told eWEEK in an interview before the launch today.

For $15 per user, per month, a worker would have access to Exchange, full SharePoint Online capabilities and the Office LiveMeeting Web conferencing application. This is a departure from what Capossela described as the "one size fits all" apps packages and pricing of competing SAAS solutions such as Google Apps, whose premier edition costs $50 per user, per year.

The news comes just three weeks after Microsoft officials unveiled Azure at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference.

Currently in a technical preview, Azure is Microsoft's vision of
Windows as a cloud computing solution, where customers will procure the
same Windows applications through the Internet as a service instead of
downloaded to their PCs and servers. Azure includes Live Services, .NET Services, SQL Services, SharePoint
Services and Dynamics CRM Services.

Online Services will complement
this platform and will enable Microsoft to compete with Google
in SAAS. Microsoft has been chided for being slow to move to the cloud,
but the introduction of Azure and progress of Online Services could
temper the jibes.

Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division at
Microsoft, will be joined by officials from a cadre of customers and
partners at the event in San Francisco today.

Capossela said Microsoft has sold more than a half million seats for Microsoft Online
Services, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Office
Communications Online. Customers include Eddie Bauer, Pitney Bowes, CG
Healthcare Solutions LLC, Clean Power Research LLC and Fair Isaac.

Moreover, since unveiling the Online Services portfolio at its
Worldwide Partner Conference in July, more than 1,500 companies have
enrolled in the Microsoft Partner Program for Online Services.

Partners include Cemaphore, which has created an e-mail synchronization
product that lets Microsoft customers port e-mail easily between
on-premise installations of Exchange and the new SAAS Exchange Online.

At the event, Microsoft will also introduce plans to offer an "IT
management and security solution" for Microsoft Online Services in the
next year. Think SAAS versions of Windows System Center applications.